Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Oh fair enough are sky and plain

Alfred Edward Housman

“Oh fair enough are sky and plain” as printed in A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics Text 26 1896 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsVictorian song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from A Shropshire Lad, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Oh fair enough are sky and plain,

But I know fairer far:

Those are as beautiful again

That in the water are;

Verse 2

The pools and rivers wash so clean

The trees and clouds and air,

The like on earth was never seen,

And oh that I were there.

Verse 3

These are the thoughts I often think

As I stand gazing down

In act upon the cressy brink

To strip and dive and drown;

Verse 4

But in the golden-sanded brooks

And azure meres I spy

A silly lad that longs and looks

And wishes he were I.

Credits

Written by Alfred Edward Housman

Words by Alfred Edward Housman. Historical text published in A Shropshire Lad (1896); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

A Shropshire Lad (1896), “Oh fair enough are sky and plain”

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) died more than 89 years ago; his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 2007, and the 1896 first edition is in the public domain in the United States. Entries credited to other hands are held unless their author died more than 70 years ago.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

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Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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